Background: The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services approved a number of panels as screening tests including those for liver functions. The utility of routinely testing for Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and direct bilirubin was questioned and empirical data analyzed to suggest alternatives. Methods: Tests done over six months were examined for AST, ALT, total and direct bilirubin valu...

Bilirubin, an abundant bile pigment in mammalian serum, was once considered a toxic waste product and has more recently been recognized as a potent antioxidant of physiological importance. However, its potential biological functions in other fields are not well understood. Herein we show that bilirubin is also a powerful immunomodulatory agent. Bilirubin significantly inhibited Ag-specific and ...

PURPOSE We sought to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of total serum bilirubin concentration (TSB) and free (unbound) bilirubin concentration (Bf) as predictors of risk for bilirubin toxicity and kernicterus and to examine consistency between these findings and proposed mechanisms of bilirubin transport and brain uptake. METHODS A review of literature was undertaken to define basic pr...

We used two coated thin films to measure the concentrations of unconjugated, conjugated, and total bilirubin as well as bilirubin covalently bound to albumin ("delta" bilirubin) in more than 400 serum samples. We measured the unconjugated and conjugated species by determining their reflection densities at two wavelengths (400 and 460 nm) on a coating designed for the enhanced spectral measureme...

A technique is described for preparation in the guinea pig of an in situ, isolated, vascularized gall bladder that exhibits normal absorptive functions. Absorption of labeled bile pigments from the gall bladder was determined by the subsequent excretion of radioactivity in hepatic bile. Over a wide range of concentrations, unconjugated bilirubin-(14)C was well absorbed, whereas transfer of conj...

Crigler-Najjar (CN) disease is an inherited disorder of bilirubin metabolism. The disease is caused by a deficiency of the hepatic enzyme bilirubin UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (B-UGT). Patients with CN disease have high serum levels of the toxic compound, unconjugated bilirubin. The only defect in bilirubin metabolism of CN patients is the absence of B-UGT activity. The transplantation of cells...

Bilirubin is a heme metabolite generated by the concerted action of the enzymes heme oxygenase and biliverdin reductase. Although long considered a toxic byproduct of heme catabolism, recent preclinical, and clinical studies indicate the bilirubin exerts beneficial effects in the circulation. In the present study, we determined whether local administration of bilirubin attenuates neointima form...

DURING the last ten years considerable advances have been made in our knowledge of the metabolism of bilirubin and thus in our understanding of the basic defects underlying jaundice, particularly in the newborn and in some types of familial hyperbilirubinaemia. These advances are due mainly to the characterization of 'direct' bilirubin as an ester glucuronide of bilirubin. Many of the classical...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has similar pathologic findings of alcoholic fatty liver but occurs in patients who drink little or no alcohol. Accumulation of excess fat in the liver is regarded as a clinical feature of insulin resistance and is known to be associated with metabolic syndrome components such as abdominal obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and dyslipidemia. For this...